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Suzanne Docherty, a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, has revealed in the student edition of the British Medical Journal that preclinical lectures can be more exciting than generally assumed. One neurophysiology lecturer decided that a few props were needed to demonstrate the workings of the inner ear, and played The Sound of Silence very loudly into an enormous tank of water, engulfing the entire front row in the ensuing tidal wave.

"Others preferred to keep it simple," Ms Docherty writes, "such as our embryology lecturer who managed to teach most things using only a banana to illustrate her point, and the molecular biologist who, impressively, taught the theory of tumour markers armed with just a packet of fun-size Mars bars."